Bakugan Battle Brawlers
Bakugan Battle Brawlers (爆丸バトルブローラーズ Bakugan Batoru Burōrāzu) is a Japanese-Canadian animated action adventure television series produced by TMS Entertainment, Dentsu Inc., and Nelvana Animation under the direction of Mitsuo Hashimoto. The story centers on the lives of creatures called Bakugan and the battle brawlers who possess them. It debuted in 2007, and though initially a failure in Japan, the series became popular in the United States and Canada, prompting the creation/order of several follow-up seasons (New Vestroia and Gundalian Invaders), which aired in other countries before Japan. The fourth and final season, Mechtanium Surge, was never broadcast in Japan and instead aired in Canadian and U.S. markets. The Bakugan franchise are co-productions from Sega Toys and Spin Master, with animation by TMS Entertainment, Dentsu, and Nelvana Animation. A spin-off series called Baku Tech! Bakugan which featured the characters from the manga of the same name aired on TV Tokyo from April 7, 2012 to March 30, 2013. It was followed by a sequel series called Baku Tech! Bakugan Gachi which ran from April 6, 2013 to December 28, 2013. In 2015, Spin Master revealed that they had plans to relaunch Bakugan; however, no statements had been made until November 30, 2017 when Spin Master revealed there would be a Bakugan relaunch in the 1st quarter of 2019. The series will be called Bakugan Battle Planet. So after the company's announcement of forming the partnership with Cartoon Network, TMS Entertainment & Nelvana Limited once again, the new series was soon pushed forward to a December 2018 release. A few days later, the new rebooted show was confirmed to consist of 100 11-minute episodes, which can also be marketed as 50 22-30 minute episodes. On October 15th, Some of the voice actors for the series along with the character's names were revealed; Dan Kouzo would be voice by Jonah Wineberg, Shun by Ticoon Kim & Wynton Styles by Deven Mack. Plot Season 1: Rise of The Battle Brawlers Dan Kuso's life changed one day when random cards fell out of the sky with special powers. He and his friend Shun invented a game called Bakugan with these. Together with his friends Runo, Marucho, Shun, Julie, and Alice, they form the Bakugan Battle Brawlers and its members are accidentally dragged into fighting for the fate of Vestroia (the Bakugan's home dimension). The season is the story of a dimension called Vestroia which loses its natural balance and merges with the Earth and many other worlds. An evil Bakugan called Naga was tempted to take the power of the Infinity and Silent Cores, which formed the Perfect Core that balanced Vestroia, but absorbed too much negative energy and thus was trapped within the Silent Core and destabilised Vestroia. So Dan and the brawlers decided to bring back balance by meeting new friends and allies in the other worlds, learn more about the origin of the Bakugan; and facing Naga, a rogue bakugan who seeks the mighty Infinity Core so that he could complete the all-powerful Perfect Core and have almighty power and absolute control over Earth and Vestroia. Season 2: New Vestroia The two of the six Battle Brawlers (Dan and Marucho) return to New Vestroia and discover that it has been colonized by an alien race called Vestals, who are unaware that the Bakugan are intelligent beings. Three Vestals: Mira, Ace and Baron, however, encounter Shun, who was an old friend of Dan and Marucho, so he knew the truth about Bakugan and formed the Bakugan Brawlers Resistance. While battling against the evil Vexos, the top Vestal brawlers, who follow the rules of their Prince. The Brawlers destroy each of the three Dimension Controllers that keep the Bakugan in their ball form, liberating New Vestroia. The Resistance part but reunite six months later when they discover that King Zenoheld of Vestal has attacked the Six Ancient Warriors in an attempt to steal the Attribute Energies. The Six Ancient Warriors engage in a 6-on-1 battle with Zenoheld, but are unable to defeat Zenohelds Mechanical Bakugan, Farbros. In desperation, the Ancient Warriors give the Resistance Bakugan their attribute energies to protect them from Zenoheld, who has the Bakugan Termination System, a machine built to wipe out all Bakugan but needs the Attribute Energies to power it. These energies result in the 6 Bakugan evolving. After losing half the energies, the Brawlers decided to attack instead, engaging a temporary alliance with Spectra Phantom, the former leader of the Vexos, along with his sidekick Gus Grav. However, the remaining energies are taken and the Brawlers rush to New Vestroia to evacuate all the Bakugan. Drago, however, refuses to give up and manages to destroy the BT System by absorbing all 6 Attribute Energies and evolves again into Helix Dragonoid. Things quiet down until Spectra resurfaces again to battle Dan and when he loses, he concedes that Dan is number one and joins the Brawlers, returning to his original self, Keith Clay. Keith reveals that Zenoheld is working on a powerful weapon called the Alternative System and helps construct Battle Gear for Drago. Meanwhile, the Vexos begins crumbling from within as both Volt, Lync and Shadow decide to leave, feeling that Zenoheld and his son Hydron have finally gone too far but are quickly disposed of by Prince Hydron. In the final battle, the Brawlers with Gus, who joins as their newest member, manage to destroy the Alternative and the Resistance go their separate ways. Season 3: Gundalian Invaders After defeating Zenoheld, the Brawlers return to Earth and with the help of newcomer Ren, they set up Bakugan Interspace. However, Ren is not all that he seems to be and reveals that he is a Gundalian in need of help, saying that his planet Gundalia, is under attack by Neathia. Shun is not convinced and discovers, that Ren is lying once Princess Fabia showed and proved Ren's story wrong. The Brawlers agree to help Fabia and head to Neathia to help fight off the Gundalians. Meanwhile, Ren begins showing signs of distrust for Barodius (Gundalia's Tyrannical Emperor) and eventually defects to rejoin the Brawlers. Unfortunately, Jake is captured by Kazarina (Gundalia's leading Bakugan biologist) and brainwashed, so the Brawlers head to Gundalia to rescue him along with Ren's imprisoned teammates(who were imprisoned for failure), joined by Nurzak (a former advisor to Barodious, who turned against him when he saw he would lead Gundalia to ruin) and Mason Brown(a teammate who had escaped imprisonment, who have also sided with Neathia. Once they do, the Twelve Orders mount a final attack on Neathia. The Brawlers rush back in time to defend the planet while Dan and Barodius engage in their final battle. Ren and Mason's teammates Jesse Glenn, Lena Isis and Zenet Surrow are freed from their brainwashed state after Kazarina's demise. Linehalt uses his Forbidden Powers to restore the war torn Neathia, while Barodius and Dharak are destroyed by an overload of vast energy and power from the Sacred Orb (which they tried to take anyway, despite Dan and Drago defeating them), which grants Drago new strength and abilities and evolves into Titanium Dragonoid and granting him the status of ruler over all Bakugan. Season 4: Mechtanium Surge Part 1 The Brawlers' reign as number one in Bakugan Interspace is ended by two new powerful teams: Team Anubias and Team Sellon. To make matters worse, Dan and Drago continuously suffer from visions sent to them by Mag Mel and Razenoid. These cause them to lose fans rapidly when Drago loses control in battle several times, threatening the lives of all the children in Interspace. Shun and Marucho find themselves unable to help as Dan is keeping everything to himself. When Dan loses control once again and nearly kills Anubias in battle, all of Dan's fans abandon him and he leaves for New Vestroia to train. Shun, meanwhile, takes the reins of leader of the Battle Brawlers and charges himself with the task of returning the Brawlers to their former glory. He becomes more and more uncaring and brushes off all opinions but his own while Marucho tries to help him be a better leader. Paige and Rafe show up to learn from them, but find them in disarray. Meanwhile, Dan and Drago fix their problem and prepare to come back. Eventually, Dan controls Drago's powers as Marucho and Shun reunite and join up with Paige and Rafe. When the Chaos Bakugan start destroying Interspace, Spectra appears out of nowhere to help the Brawlers out and destroys many of the Chaos Bakugan. Afterwards, Dan returns, but is out of sync and accidentally defeats his fellow brawlers with Zenthon. He tells them later about Mag Mel (Spectra left beforehand, disappointed in Dan having changed). Shun walks out and dismisses Taylean's words. Dan later has a vision (which is true) about Gundalia being attacked by Mag Mel (who is now free). Dan arrives and tells them about Gundalia, which Paige confirms unexpectedly. The Brawlers dismiss Dan and don't let him go, but Dan says somewhat angrily that he's not asking; he's telling them that he is an original brawler and isn't gonna be cut from this fight. They let him come along and save Ren's home world. Then they face Mag Mel and discover Interspace being destroyed, so they go back to Earth to save it but they are trapped and must figure a way to save the gate, the key, the battlers and Interspace. Just then, Anubias and Sellon reveal themselves as artificial life forms created by Mag Mel to assure his resurrection and succeeded in taking Dan's Key. In a new battle, Dan finds out that Mag Mel is actually Barodius, who survived his last encounter on Neathia after being transported to the dark reversed dimension created by Code Eve. He later plans to destroy Earth, Gundalia, Neathia, Vestal and New Vestroia by sending every civilization to the dark reversed dimension. Dan and Drago have a final brawl against Mag Mel and Razenoid with Drago evolving one more time into the legendary Fusion Dragonoid. They manage to win, but before "disappearing", Mag Mel says that his final demise will cause another disaster to befall on Dan and Drago. Part 2 A few months later, Bakugan City is shown to have a peaceful start as humans have now communed with the Bakugan from New Vestroia. Not all is well when 4 Mechtogan led by Coredegon, who have broken free from their bakugan, start terrorizing the place. Not only that, but some new enemy called Wiseman has appeared with ancient Bakugan called the Nonets. At the beginning, The Brawlers get confused because Wiseman somehow had the appearance of Gunz Lazar, the new Haos Brawler who disappeared after the four Mechtogan attacked Bakugan City. But it was later revealed that Wiseman was actually Coredegon in disguise while the real Gunz was put in a coma so his negative energy was absorbed. After Coredegon alongside his pals (in his combined form as a Mechtogan Destroyer) sent the Brawlers to the Doom Dimension, he completely destroyed the Earth and New Vestroia. With Gunz back to his normal state, Dan and the others travel through time in order to stop Mechtavius Destroyer from killing every human and Bakugan. In the final battle, Dragonoid Destroyer, who is Drago's last Mechtogan, acquires an infinite power that comes from the bond between Bakugan and humans all over the world, which gave them a chance to defeat the Nonet Mechtogan and send them back between dimensions. Dan's friends throw him a party, but soon discover Dan is missing. Shun sees Dan and Drago sailing off using a boat borrowed from Kato. Dan says that another adventure is waiting for him and Drago, and that he had enough time in the spotlight, such that he wants to let other Brawlers to rise to his rank. Media Anime series Bakugan Battle Brawlers The first episode of the anime television series (produced by TMS Entertainment, Dentsu Inc., and Japan Vistec under the direction of Mitsuo Hashimoto), made its debut in Japan on TV Tokyo on April 5, 2007 and was rebroadcast six days later on BS Japan. Nelvana Limited produced the English-language version and premiered the series on the Canadian network Teletoon in July 2007 and then on Cartoon Network on February 24, 2008. An alternative English dub produced by Odex with all the character names kept in Japanese premiered on Cartoon Network Singapore. New Vestroia In March 2009, TMS and Nelvana Entertainment companies announced that a follow-up series, The series began airing on April 12, 2009 on the Canadian network Teletoon and then on Cartoon Network on May 9, 2009. Due to the ratings in Canada, Teletoon asked that New Vestroia be extended leading to an additional 26 episode order. The Cartoon Network website aired a special called Maxus Unleashed, and marks a synopsis about the first 26 episodes. The New Vestroia series in Japan, aired on the TV Tokyo Network on March 2, 2010, at 7:00PM. The opening song, titled "Cho! Saikyo! Warriors" is once again done by Psychic Lover, while the first ending, "Bang! Bang! Bakugan!", is done by Yoshifumi Ushima and the second ending "Communication Breakdown" by Crush Tears. Gundalian Invaders Publicly announced through Bakugan.com, the official My.Bakugan.com community, and other media, Spin Master announced a third series. It premiered in Canada on May 23, 2010, and aired in the United States on May 29, 2010. The Japanese version premiered on April 3, 2011 and ended on January 22, 2012, before being replaced by the Japanese dub of Zoobles! in its initial timeslot. The new series ties into the online game Bakugan Dimensions through the use of special heat-reveal DNA codes on the new series of Gundalian Invaders Bakugan. The first opening song "Ready Go!" is done by Sissy, while the second opening, "Mega・Meta", is done by Yu Kobayashi, who is Dan's voice actor. The first ending song, "Love the Music", is done by LISP, while the second, "Tan-Kyu-Shin", is done by KREVA, and the third is "Love Go! Courage Go!", which was performed by TAKUYA. Mechtanium Surge In September 2010, Nelvana Entertainment announced a fourth and final season to the Bakugan series titled, which launched on February 13, 2011 in Canada and in United States on March 5, 2011. It was originally set for 26 episodes but was later extended to 46. As of February 18, 2012, there have been no announcements whether or not this will air in Japan. Also, in this season Kubo helped to Hashimoto for some episodes. However, late in 2012, Taiwan and Hong Kong did air a version based off the original Japanese version, though using a modified version of the Bakugan Battle Brawlers: New Vestroia Opening and Ending animations and songs. Games Strategic game A strategic game called Bakugan was developed by Sega Toys and Spin Master and released in conjunction with the anime series, albeit beginning a year before the anime even started (2006). The game uses spherical, spring-loaded miniature figures, representing the Bakugan, which pop open when rolled onto special metal Gate cards. The objective of the game is to capture three Gate cards. Attributes There are a total of 6 attributes: Pyrus (Fire), Aquos (Water) and Haos (Light) make the power triangle. Opposite them, the trio of Darkus (Darkness) , Ventus (Wind) and Subterra (Earth) make the triangle of power. Battle gear and Bakunano come in gold, silver, and copper. Power Sources There is the Infinity Core, Silent Core, The Sacred Orb, The Attribute Energies, The Code Of Eve and others. They are power sources. They contain enough power in them to bring life to anything in the Bakugan world. They contain light and darkness to keep the world balanced. Special Treatment Special Treatment Bakugan exist, such as Clear, Dual Attribute, Pearl, Translucent, and White. In the game, most Special Treatment Bakugan have multiple attributes or can take on the attribute of an opposing Bakugan under certain circumstances. Note that special effects are NOT attributes except for Clear and White. Reception Bakugan marbles have been one of the top rated toys for children, winning awards and selling thousands of marbles a year. The original series 1 and 2 (B1 Bakugan) were smaller, and all Bakugan after series 3 called Bakupearl (B2 Bakugan) are larger and the current size. According to IGN, it was one of the leading kids games for the Nintendo DS in 2009. The Property of the Year award, recognizing the property that has had the greatest success spreading its brand throughout the industry that year. Card game The card game is played with a deck of 56 cards, consisting of 5 each of ranks 1-10, plus six additional cards which have special abilities in addition to a rank. There is no suit distinction. Although it's conceptually a trick-taking game, the player who wins the trick only saves one card on his score pile, discarding the rest; this allows for special cases where there is no single winner. At the beginning of each hand, each player rolls one die to determine the target number of captures. At the end of the hand, that player accumulates a penalty score equal to the difference between the target number and the actual number captured. The game lasts until some player has scored ten points, and the lowest score is the winner. Merchandising and product promotions Toys and electronics In August 2009, Digital Blue announced a line of Bakugan branded electronics for the 20-55 (as confirmed in an interview of popular toys marketed at kids) age group. Products include branded digital cameras, alarm clocks and other electronics. The line was released in retail in Spring 2009. The franchise generated significant revenue from merchandising and toy sales. By 2009, Bakugan had generated $1 billion in toy sales. In 2010, licensed merchandise sold $600 million worldwide. By 2010, the franchise had generated a total of $1.6 billion in merchandise sales. Video games On June 6, 2010, Spin Master announced on Bakugan.com that they were working on the online game 'Bakugan Dimensions' which would be released online for all Operating Systems that supported Adobe Flash. It was released for open Beta on June 2, 2010 but the beta was shut down on June 30, 2011 because the season for Gundalian Invaders had finished. The DS, Wii, PlayStation 2 and 3 and many other systems also had a Bakugan game developed and follows the story of your character with a Bakugan who came from the Doom Dimension. It acts as an alternate plot to the series. Other In 2009, Frito-Lay introduced a set of 26 Bakugan tazos in packages of Cheetos in India. The promotion, which ran from June 10 to August 10, 2009, included a contest in which consumers could win other Bakugan prizes. Similar products At least since 2017, Spin Master sued Alpha (for Screechers Wild!), Lingdong (for Eonster Hunter) and Mattel (for Sonokong's Mecard, which the American company distributes outside South Korea and Mainland China), alleging that the rival toys in question breached the Canadian company's patents related to Bakugan toys. Category:Nelvana Category:Shows from the 2000's Category:Shows that premiered in 2007 Category:Bakugan Category:Bakugan Battle Brawlers Category:Bakugan Battle Brawlers: New Vestroia Category:Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders Category:Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge Category:Shows Category:Anime Category:Animated Category:Shows with Boys Action Category:Cancelled shows Category:Articles in need of images Category:Shows with wikis Category:Shows based on toys